Synopsis

"Fulfilling meal...a familiar view.”

In this story, Fate and food meet in a delicious and gentle world. It’s nothing but an ordinary meal scene... Delicious meals are served at the Emiya’s dinner table every day, through spring, summer, fall and winter. -- Let's see... what's for dinner today?

I remember when I read Fate/Stay Night for the first time and thought "Man, this VN is really mediocre, I bet nobody will ever talk about it and they will not make 16000 spin-off about this in ten years" but you know why you should, no, you NEED to read Stay Night for? The cooking segments, those are the real shit. The VN is 50+ hours long, and only about half of that time is spent reading about Shirou cooking, that's not nearly enough for the hardcore japanese culture connoisseur that I am, but they have finally got there. Finally, an entire series about Shirou
fucking cooking, by no less than Ufotable, the most appropriate pick for this kind of show I must say. No more shonen anime bullshit, moe girls or stupid as fuck sex scenes. Now it's only cooking. I mean, who the fuck wanted Prototype anyway amirite? See you next time for Lancer in "my life as a dog bartender" by Studio fucking Ghibli.

The Fate franchise is a juggernaut of the anime industry which started with Fate/stay night, a visual novel about a bloody conflict to the death between 7 mages and their 7 servants, heroes of history and legend, all with their own distinct ideologies, driving forces, and convictions. All of this makes for a setting that is perfect for epic, complex tales of heroism, such as, indeed, Fate/stay night itself, or its similarly popular prequel Fate/Zero. Emiya-san Chi no Kyou no Gohan is the latest entry into the Fateverse, and it brings something truly revolutionary: the ability to watch Shirou Emiya cook tempura soba for 5
minutes while his veritable harem goofs off in the background. This is truly worthy of being called Fate. We all appreciate your effort, Kinoko Nasu, Gen Urobuchi, but you'll have to step up your game, as the true king is now in town. This is exactly what Fate was always meant to be and it is, naturally, very easy to understand why this wonderful little cooking series was made as part of the Fate franchise. No rush, Ufotable, we're all about this. Prototype? Nah, it can wait. Fate route? Who cares? Strange Fake? Never heard of it. This is exactly what i FUCKING WANTED SHIROU EMIYA COOKING FOOD WHILE KING ARTHUR ACTS LIKE A GENERIC BRAINWASHED SCHOOLGIRL OH GOD WHY DID IT COME TO THIS NASU HOW COULD YOU ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN TO YOUR BRAINCHILD HAVE YOU NO STANDARDS

This show has single-handedly delivered upon me inner peace, satisfaction, and bliss. I now know how it feels to achieve pure zen. Before watching this show this morning, I felt miserable with a hangover. Now, not only is it gone, but I feel better than I did beforehand, the bags under my eyes have disappeared, and I think I saw $5,000 appear in my bank account out of nowhere.

Suffice it to say, good things happen to you just for watching this show, and it is the cure to all worldly conflict and malice. If I have a massive heart attack tomorrow, I'll be okay
with it. I have no regrets.

Okay, I generally don't write reviews - hell, I haven't even been on this website for a long time. And let me just preface this by saying that I loved everything Fate, but I got super burnt out by the likes of Grand Order, Apocrypha and especially Last Encore (which I dropped after 10 minutes of the first episode because I was just so done with everything Fate).

Then this came along out of nowhere (I wasn't even aware of it until last night). This show is everything that I loved the most about both Fate/Stay Night and Hollow Ataraxia - just the chilled, slice of
life stuff, and the interactions between Servants and Masters which doesn't just end up in combat.

There's not real overarching plot - it's just self contained, day-to-day shenanigans. If you're expecting deep lore etc etc then go back to the other Fate series. But, if you're like me and just want more cute side stories between Saber, Shiro, Illya, Taiga, Lancer and (presumably, to come) Sakura and Rin, then this should be a treat. Hell, the is the kind of series where I genuinely expect (and hope) Kirei and Gilgamesh show up to have dinner at the Emiya household...

I shouldn't need to talk much about the art - it's done by ufotable, for crying out loud. That's all you should need to know to decide how great it looks. I particularly like that whoever is specifically supervising/directing the art and animation has decided to go for a much softer look and pastel-y colours that I really appreciate for this series. It adds to the whole chill and calm tone that it has.

And sound-wise, well... all the expected VAs are here, and they all slide perfectly back into their roles. The interactions between Shiro and Saber are just as adorable as expected, and the chemistry between Ayako Kawasumi and Noriaki Sugiyama is just as spot on as always. Speaking of interactions, episode 2 is priceless - if only for Lancer's interactions with everyone. My only gripe with the sound at the moment is that I haven't warmed to the ending yet. The opening is spot on, and reminds me of something from either a Persona animation or the Monogatari series. But yeah... that ending... it's got some work to do to win me over right now...

So yeah, the tl;dr is pretty straightforward - you like Fate? You like the interactions between the characters of F/SN? Watch this. You still want more Servants, more fighting, more of everything that is slowly killing the Fate franchise, hmm... this might be too chill for you, but give it a try.